The Bible encourages believers that it is in their own self-interest to make care for their pastor (1 Tim 5:17-18, Hebrews 13:17).
A new study from Lifeway Research summarizes how pastors spend their time. If you read it, you will gain a better understanding of the demands on a pastor’s schedule. Click here to see the study.
In terms of my own schedule, I would make several observations relative to the study:
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In terms of hours, my guess is that I am a 60-70 hrs+/week guy. But, I find that hard to evaluate. I fear that I am exaggerating. Not all weeks are the same. I do keep a lot of most of what I do and our leaders know that they can discuss how I use my time with me at any time.
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I spend a lot of time writing and studying. I work on my blog most days for some period of time. I find this to be one of the most efficient ways to communicate with large numbers of people including our own church family.
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My goal is to spend time daily in spiritual disciplines. These include Scripture memory, reading the Bible, and prayer.
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Crisis counseling requires a great deal of my time nearly every week. I recently took a vacation day to write – – but, ended up with multiple counseling situations. By pastoral standards, I do a fair number of funerals (10-12 per year).
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In contrast to many pastors according to the above study, I watch little television. Much of my television watching consists of surfacing from my study to watch something briefly with the children. Or, I do a crossword while watching television. I find it hard to simply watch television.
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Jamie and I talk often about how we are doing with our time together as a family. It’s a constant struggle. But, we have a sabbatical coming up in the summer of 2010, and in the mean time, I am still the king of the Ping Pong table.
Hello Pastor Chris, I read your blog most every day. I may have commented before, once or twice. I just wanted to encourage you and say how much I appreciate the time you spend on your blog, even though you are not my pastor. (Actually, I am Anglican and reside in California.) I learn so much here about what’s happening in the worldwide church and really appreciate your Christian commentary on issues of the day. Yours and Tim Challies’ blogs are my favorites. Often I repost something from your blog to my Facebook page, with the hope of it reaching even more people. Thank you for being a calm, common sense voice in a cluttered, and often confusing, cyber world.
Sara, I really, really appreciate hearing from you. For all the challenges and temptations of the modern world, it is such a blessing that we can get to know people from around the world.